Adoree’ Jackson flashed some fancy footwork on a punt return, advancing the ball to the 30.

On the very next play, on the other side of the field, the Titans’ rookie cornerback took a kickoff out of the end zone about 45 yards.

Was he winded?

“No, not at all,” Jackson said Saturday night after the team’s intra-squad scrimmage at Nissan Stadium. “Because as soon as I got done I had to go right out there on defense. So just being prepared. We could condition before we get out there for training camp, so all those little things came into factor today.”

Jackson, drafted 18th overall out of Southern Cal, is a big play waiting to happen every time he’s on the field. And he looks like an incredible threat on special teams, an area where the team has struggled.

Titans linebacker Wesley Woodyard (59) shakes hands with members of the Army's 101st Airborne as they take the field for a training camp scrimmage at Nissan Stadium Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017 in Nashville , Tenn.
George Walker IV / The Tennessean

Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota (8) shakes hands with members of the Army's 101st Airborne as they take the field for a training camp scrimmage at Nissan Stadium Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017 in Nashville , Tenn.
George Walker IV / The Tennessean

The 5-10, 185-pound Jackson was the Pac-12 defensive player of the year last season and won the Jim Thorpe Award as the top defensive back in college football. He also tied the NCAA record for most career touchdown returns, scoring on four kickoffs, four punts and an interception.

“Pretty exciting player,” Titans coach Mike Mularkey said, as an announced crowd of 11,400 fans filtered out of the stadium. “Showed his speed. Showed what he’s capable of doing. He’ll be a threat, just as he was in college. But he showed his speed tonight.

“Really this was the first time in a scrimmage-type atmosphere that we’ve had these guys set up and block for them. So it’s really the start of it. We’ll just evaluate as we go. The preseason games will be important. But we know what a lot of our guys are capable of on tape already, their history.”

Jackson is battling second-year pro LeShaun Sims for the outside cornerback job opposite Logan Ryan, and veteran Brice McCain for the role of slot corner. But he’s still primarily running with the second team on defense.

His biggest impact, at least initially, appears as though it’ll be on special teams.

“It’s always fun,” Jackson said about big plays in the return game, “because you get the momentum changed, you get the crowd into it and it’s exciting. Everybody likes touchdowns, so if you can get momentum changed and things like that, it’s always fun.”

Third-round rookie wide receiver Taywan Taylor, who is seeing more reps with the first team since Corey Davis went down with a hamstring injury, has also been tested as a return man.

But Taylor muffed a kickoff for the second time in as many nights.

Mularkey said that wouldn’t dissuade him from continuing to put Taylor back there.

“No. We’re going to put guys we feel are a threat and they have a chance to put the ball in the end zone for us,” Mularkey said. “We’re not going to hold them back.”

But Jackson has looked explosive and dynamic in the open field, and Mularkey said he’s not concerned with using a rookie return man.

“You find out a lot about these guys in practice, in preseason games, in scrimmages,” Mularkey said. “I don’t think it’s risky. He’s been doing it for a long time. It’s not like it’s his first rodeo, so I’m not worried about him.”

The Titans have the entire preseason to figure out what they want to do.

But the early returns — (terrible pun intended) — point to an obvious answer.

“They’re still competing. We’re still talking,” Mularkey said. “We’ve got ideas, but nothing set in stone right now.”